EnergyWire headlines — Thursday, October 25, 2012 — 8:09 AM

SPOTLIGHT

A Utah water quality panel whose members are appointed by the governor voted yesterday to uphold a state permit that could pave the way for the nation's first commercial-scale oil sands mine to be built in the picturesque Book Cliffs region of eastern Utah.

Range Resources Corp. is firing back at the former U.S. EPA official who continues to accuse it of contaminating a drinking water well outside Fort Worth, Texas. The company's top lawyer has sent a letter to Al Armendariz demanding that he stop saying the company's gas ended up in the water well of landowner Steve Lipsky.